As for those who believe and do right actions, We will erase their bad actions and recompense them for the best of what they did. (Surat al-Ankabut, 7)

If you are innocent, Allah will soon reveal your innocence. If you have committed a sin, repent to Allah and ask Him to forgive you, for when a person confesses his sin and asks Allah for forgiveness, Allah accepts his repentance. (Bukhari)

THE TOPIC OF THE DAY

SCIENTIFIC DEVELOPMENTS IN THE GOLDEN AGE

HARUN YAHYA

Thinking is essential to recognize the wonders and beauties surrounding us. The Qur'an invites people to ponder so as to see the signs of Allah encompassing them. This is the only way to appreciate Allah's superior wisdom and power, which He manifests in living beings. Subtleties concealed in the creation of the heavens, Earth, animals, plants, and human beings deserve our deep thought. In the following verses, Allah invites people to think on these subtleties:

He Who created the seven heavens in layers. You will not find any flaw in the creation of the All-Merciful. Look again-do you see any gaps? (Surat al-Mulk: 3)

Man has only to look at what he was created from. (Surat at-Tariq: 5)

Have they not looked at the camel-how it was created? And at the sky-how it was raised up? And at the mountains-how they were embedded? And at the earth-how it was smoothed out? (Surat al-Ghashiyya: 17-20)

Complying with Allah's commands, which encourage people to think, analyze, and research, will open new scientific horizons. These very developments, which flourish wherever people live according to the real spirit of the Qur'an's moral teachings, will be evident in the Golden Age, a time of unprecedented scientific development.

In the Golden Age, the major factor that will enable such scientific development will be science's purification from some dogmas and erroneous goals. In recent centuries, such bigoted beliefs as materialist philosophy and Darwinism have impeded scientific progress. Many scientists concentrated their efforts on proving entirely mistaken assumptions, and great amounts of effort and time have been wasted. In the Golden Age, the scientific world will embrace the fact that Allah created the universe and everything that it contains. This will allow science to be practiced on sound foundations. Available resources that were used to support Darwin's fantasies or to produce chemical weapons and nuclear bombs will be channeled to humanity's service in compliance with Allah's consent. Aware that serving humanity will earn Allah's good pleasure, scientists will engage in more fruitful research.

Each development in the Golden Age will lead to great advances in medicine. The discovery of the structure of DNA in the mid-twentieth century opened new horizons in medicine and biology. Similarly, all scientific and technological developments in the Golden Age will add momentum to medical studies, minimize errors, shorten the time required for an accurate diagnosis, and enable patients to receive the optimum treatment.

Genetics, which will be the science of this new century, will be the impetus behind medical advances. Studies on the human DNA code seek to disclose the genetic causes of many diseases. One goal of the Human Genome Project, originally planned to last for 15 years and being worked upon by thousands of scientists from more than eight countries, is to identify the genes in human DNA and thereby uncover its mysteries.

Determining the sequences of human DNA's 3 billion chemical base pairs, entering this information in databases, and using the related technologies to serve science will open a new era. The project's primary goals are to protect people against disease by altering the DNA code, predetermining how the body responds to medicines, and ensuring protection by predetermining every human beings' weaknesses. Devising medicines solely for an individual's needs, as well as forming a database of genetic features and a genetic card for a person, are also on the scientists' agenda. As science can progress only as far as Allah wills, we should not be worried about such undertakings, as many people are today. Such research either will succeed and benefit humanity, or fail due to Allah's will.

Thanks to these developments, doctors will be able to detect minute differences of the same diseases and then use individualized treatment procedures or techniques. As a result, people living in the Golden Age will not suffer from maltreatment and feel desperate. Everyone will immediately receive the appropriate medical assistance, for ideal morality and good conduct complies with the duty to help patients and save their lives. In the Golden Age, enhancing an individual's health and quality of life will be of primary importance.

People guided by the Qur'an's values consider human life to be very precious. In a society of believers, therefore, people pay great attention to issues related to human health. Regardless of their status or qualities, anyone, whether rich or poor, young or old, will receive the treatment he or she deserves. All solutions will be exhausted, and great sacrifices will be made to save a person's life, for according to the Qur'an's values, people receive great rewards for trying to treat and cure those who are sick so that they might have healthier and fuller lives.

So We decreed for the tribe of Israel that if someone kills another person-unless it is in retaliation for someone else or for causing corruption in the earth-it is as if he had murdered all mankind. And if anyone gives life to another person, it is as if he had given life to all mankind. (Surat al-Ma'ida: 32)

In compliance with this verse, Muslims in the Golden Age will make serious efforts to develop and implement workable strategies to promote quality health care for all and to ensure that patients receive optimal care.(For further reading see, "The Golden Age" by Harun Yahya.)

Look over the butterflies' wings in the picture on the right as if you were seeing them for the first time. Surely you will be filled with admiration for such an aesthetic display, a symmetry that is without the slightest flaw, the dazzling colors and patterns. Now think of a piece of cloth. Assume that it is a very beautiful piece of cloth of good quality that has been woven with the inspiration of these butterflies' patterns. What would you think if you saw such a piece of cloth in a shop-window? Probably, the existence of an artist, who has drawn the patterns of this cloth, taking the wings of a butterfly as an inspiration while drawing them, springs into your mind, and you appreciate his artistry. In this situation, you should also appreciate this fact: the artistry you admire doesn't belong to the person who draws the cloth pattern, taking butterflies as his example, but to Allah, Who is the originator of the patterns and colors of butterfly wings. The colorful wings of butterflies with their wonderfully varied patterns are magnificent manifestations of Allah's artistry in color. Just as a pattern on a piece of cloth does not come into being by chance, so is the color and pattern symmetry in the wings so perfect that they could not have come into being coincidentally.

Moreover, the splendid wings are not the only striking features of butterflies. The body design of butterflies is also perfect in every respect. The butterflies take in nourishment by sucking up nectar from flowers. Most butterflies have a long organ called a proboscis which they use to reach a liquid that is at some depth. A proboscis is a long tongue used to drink water or to suck up nectar from flowers. The butterfly rolls up its long tongue inwards when it isn't using it. This tongue can be three times the length of a butterfly's body when unrolled.

Like other insects, the butterflies also have a skeleton that covers the outer surface of their bodies. This outer or exoskeleton is composed of hard plates connected by soft tissue, looking like some sort of armor. The hard material is called "chitin." The formation of this layer comes about through a very interesting process. As is commonly known, caterpillars pass through a rather complex process called metamorphosis. The caterpillar first becomes a pupa and then turns into a butterfly. Throughout this process of metamorphosis, slight changes occur in the wings, antennae, legs and other body parts. Also, the cells in different key areas such as the flight muscles and wings re-organize themselves through every phase of metamorphosis. Furthermore, along with these changes, almost all systems in the body -the digestive system, excretory system, respiratory system etc.- go through a process of immense change.

This diversity in design that butterflies have, as much as their wings, belongs to Allah, the All-Powerful. Allah is the One Who bestows every creature with the characteristics it needs.

According to the theory of evolution, every living species has emerged from a predecessor. One species which existed previously turned into something else over time and all species have come into being in this way. According to the theory, this transformation proceeds gradually over millions of years.

If this were the case, then innumerable intermediate species should have lived during the immense period of time when these transformations were supposedly occurring. For instance, there should have lived in the past some half-fish/half-reptile creatures which had acquired some reptilian traits in addition to the fish traits they already had. Or there should have existed some reptile/bird creatures, which had acquired some avian traits in addition to the reptilian traits they already possessed. Evolutionists refer to these imaginary creatures, which they believe to have lived in the past, as "transitional forms".

If such animals had really existed, there would have been millions, even billions, of them. More importantly, the remains of these creatures should be present in the fossil record. The number of these transitional forms should have been even greater than that of present animal species, and their remains should be found all over the world. In The Origin of Species, Darwin accepted this fact and explained:

If my theory be true, numberless intermediate varieties, linking most closely all of the species of the same group together must assuredly have existed... Consequently evidence of their former existence could be found only amongst fossil remains.(1)

Even Darwin himself was aware of the absence of such transitional forms. He hoped that they would be found in the future. Despite his optimism, he realised that these missing intermediate forms were the biggest stumbling-block for his theory. That is why he wrote the following in the chapter of the The Origin of Species entitled "Difficulties of the Theory":

… Why, if species have descended from other species by fine gradations, do we not everywhere see innumerable transitional forms? Why is not all nature in confusion, instead of the species being, as we see them, well defined?… But, as by this theory innumerable transitional forms must have existed, why do we not find them embedded in countless numbers in the crust of the earth?… But in the intermediate region, having intermediate conditions of life, why do we not now find closely-linking intermediate varieties? This difficulty for a long time quite confounded me.(2)

The only explanation Darwin could come up with to counter this objection was the argument that the fossil record uncovered so far was inadequate. He asserted that when the fossil record had been studied in detail, the missing links would be found.

Believing in Darwin's prophecy, evolutionist paleontologists have been digging up fossils and searching for missing links all over the world since the middle of the 19th century. Despite their best efforts, no transitional forms have yet been uncovered. All the fossils unearthed in excavations have shown that, contrary to the beliefs of evolutionists, life appeared on earth all of a sudden and fully-formed. Trying to prove their theory, evolutionists have instead unwittingly caused it to collapse.

A famous British paleontologist, Derek V. Ager, admits this fact even though he is an evolutionist:

The point emerges that if we examine the fossil record in detail, whether at the level of orders or of species, we find-over and over again-not gradual evolution, but the sudden explosion of one group at the expense of another.(3)

A major problem in proving the theory has been the fossil record; the imprints of vanished species preserved in the Earth's geological formations.

This record has never revealed traces of Darwin's hypothetical intermediate variants - instead species appear and disappear abruptly, and this anomaly has fueled the creationist argument that each species was created by God.(4)

These gaps in the fossil record cannot be explained by saying that sufficient fossils have not yet been found, but that they one day will be. Another American scholar, Robert Wesson, states in his 1991 book Beyond Natural Selection, that "the gaps in the fossil record are real and meaningful". He elaborates this claim in this way:

The gaps in the record are real, however. The absence of a record of any important branching is quite phenomenal. Species are usually static, or nearly so, for long periods, species seldom and genera never show evolution into new species or genera but replacement of one by another, and change is more or less abrupt.(5)

The purpose of this site is to examine the signs of the Hour through the verses of the Qur’an and hadiths of the Prophet (saas), and to show that these signs have begun to appear in our present time. The fact that the advent of these signs was revealed fourteen centuries ago should increase a believer’s faith in Allah and his devotion to Him. The following pages have been written keeping in mind our Lord’s promise: “Say: Praise be to Allah. He will show you His Signs and you will recognize them…” (Surat an-Naml: 93)" Visit the site >>